“SysAdmin Super Star” Winner Aims to Share Knowledge with Co-Workers

Linux Foundation Training scholarship winner Abdelghani Ouchabane is a senior software developer at eZono, a medical device startup in Germany that uses Linux to build its software and systems. He’s worked on a range of Linux projects over the past five years in this job, including kernel module and driver configuration, system and server configuration, and networking, he said. He’s also contributed to many open source projects including Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, Meego, Tizen and Debian.

He applied for a training scholarship for the same reason he is a Linux Foundation individual member: to help improve his system administration skills and to be more involved in the open source community. As a scholarship winner in the “SysAdmin Super Star” category, announced earlier this year, he also plans to share his new knowledge within his company.

“I believe that Linux training will let me learn from the right experts, so I will get the latest techniques and knowledge in Linux,” Ouchabane said. “I will transfer the knowledge via the direct support of my colleagues during their daily work, and also in our company we are sharing knowledge through internal workshops and presentations. So my colleagues will get a better understanding on how our various servers are running and what they are for.”

We followed up with Ouchabane via email after the winners were announced to learn more about his background and goals.

Tell us something few people know about you.

I graduated from the National Institute of Electricity and Electronics (INELEC) of Boumerdes-Algiers, Algeria, in 2000, where I received my Engineering Degree (Ingeniorat d’Etat) in Computer Software Engineering. Then I worked for 3 year for CDTA ( Development Center of Advanced Technology) in Algeria. After that I joined the Technical University of Berlin for 1 year, where I studied software for System on Chip based on the Linux OS : development and product OS. Also I did device drivers, Verilog and VHDL programming for MAZ Brandenburg GmbH. Then I worked one year again for CDTA. After that I joined the start-up company eZono AG in Germany in the beginning of 2006 as a Senior Software developer where I am working until today.

My main interests are Linux administration, system integration, software quality, Linux for car (Infotainment & Telematics) and I am doing some robotics (ROS + NAO Rotot).

During my job for eZono, I have participated from the beginning in all stages of the software development ( Specify the requirements and specifications, design, implementation, testing , validation, software release and also customer support ). We have used Linux from the beginning for both development environment and the production.

What is the Linux community like in Germany?

You can find more about the Linux community in Germany at: http://www.linux-community.de , http://ubuntuusers.de and http://www.linux-user.de  . There are so many (communities).

What inspires you about Linux?

It is open and free, it enables most of the latest technology innovation, and it supports many industries, PCs, tablets, mobiles, cars, SmartTVs, Smart Homes, embedded systems, industrial controls, cloud, .etc. It is fast, robust and virus free. And you can do anything you want with it. I believe that Linux has and will continue to have a great success in the future.